Burning with Love

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today, the Solem­ni­ty of the Most Sacred Heart, challenge us to be receptive to acts of love, mercy and compassion through which we experience the Love in the Heart of Christ.

The Good Shepherd

The reading from the Prophet Ezekiel proclaims the Parable of the Shepherds.

* [34:2] Shepherds: the leaders of the people. A frequent title for kings and deities in the ancient Near East; the ideal ruler took care of his subjects and anticipated their needs. Ezekiel’s oracle broadens the reference to include the whole class of Jerusalem’s leaders (v. 17). The prophet assures his audience, the exiles in Babylon, that God holds these leaders responsible for what has happened to Jerusalem and will give Israel a new shepherd worthy of the title. (Ezekiel, CHAPTER 34 | USCCB, n.d.)

Psalm 23 declares The LORD is my shepherd. 

* [Psalm 23] God’s loving care for the psalmist is portrayed under the figures of a shepherd for the flock (Ps 23:1–4) and a host’s generosity toward a guest (Ps 23:5–6). The imagery of both sections is drawn from traditions of the exodus (Is 40:11; 49:10; Jer 31:10). (Psalms, PSALM 23 | USCCB, n.d.)

The reading from the Letter of Paul to the Romans proclaims Faith, Hope, and Love.

* [5:1–11] Popular piety frequently construed reverses and troubles as punishment for sin; cf. Jn 9:2. Paul therefore assures believers that God’s justifying action in Jesus Christ is a declaration of peace. The crucifixion of Jesus Christ displays God’s initiative in certifying humanity for unimpeded access into the divine presence. Reconciliation is God’s gift of pardon to the entire human race. Through faith one benefits personally from this pardon or, in Paul’s term, is justified. The ultimate aim of God is to liberate believers from the pre-Christian self as described in Rom 1–3. Since this liberation will first find completion in the believer’s resurrection, salvation is described as future in Rom 5:10. Because this fullness of salvation belongs to the future it is called the Christian hope. Paul’s Greek term for hope does not, however, suggest a note of uncertainty, to the effect: “I wonder whether God really means it.” Rather, God’s promise in the gospel fills believers with expectation and anticipation for the climactic gift of unalloyed commitment in the holy Spirit to the performance of the will of God. The persecutions that attend Christian commitment are to teach believers patience and to strengthen this hope, which will not disappoint them because the holy Spirit dwells in their hearts and imbues them with God’s love (Rom 5:5).

* [5:1] We have peace: a number of manuscripts, versions, and church Fathers read “Let us have peace”; cf. Rom 14:19.

* [5:7] In the world of Paul’s time the good person is especially one who is magnanimous to others. (Romans, CHAPTER 5, n.d.)

The Gospel of Luke proclaims The Parable of the Lost Sheep.

* [15:1–32] To the parable of the lost sheep (Lk 15:1–7) that Luke shares with Matthew (Mt 18:12–14), Luke adds two parables (the lost coin, Lk 15:8–10; the prodigal son, Lk 15:11–32) from his own special tradition to illustrate Jesus’ particular concern for the lost and God’s love for the repentant sinner. (Luke, CHAPTER 15 | USCCB, n.d.)

Rev. Jim Caime, SJ wonders about having the kind of love of the Sacred Heart inside himself.

But maybe that’s exact­ly where the Sacred Heart meets us—not in our strength, but in our pover­ty. This feast isn’t a moral chal­lenge to love per­fect­ly. It’s an invi­ta­tion to be loved first. To be met by the mer­cy of Christ right where we’re emp­ty. To let our­selves be loved like that—in all our weak­ness, resent­ment, con­fu­sion, and pain. To be held by a heart that nev­er hard­ens against us, no mat­ter how long we wander.

And if we let that love in—just a crack—something begins to soft­en. Maybe our hearts ache in the same direction—bruised by grief, cracked open by com­pas­sion, stretched by the long­ing for peace. Maybe just a sin­gle moment when we don’t lash out. When we choose silence over spite. When we weep instead of retal­i­ate. Maybe the cycle breaks. Even just once.

So don’t try to have that kind of love.

Let it have you.

And maybe that is enough. (Caime, 2025)

Don Schwager quotes “Jesus is Son of David and Son of God,” by Cyril of Alexandria, 375-444 A.D.

"We also will ask the Pharisees of today a similar question. They deny that he who was born of the holy Virgin is very Son of God the Father and himself also God. They also divide the one Christ into two sons. Let these people explain to us how David's Son is his Lord, not so much as to human lordship as divine. To sit at the right hand of the Father is the assurance and pledge of supreme glory. Those who share the same throne are equal also in dignity, and those who are crowned with equal honors are understood of course to be equal in nature. To sit by God can signify nothing else than sovereign authority. The throne declares to us that Christ possesses power over everything and supremacy by right of his substance. How is the Son of David David's Lord, seated at the right hand of God the Father and on the throne of Deity? Is it not altogether according to the unerring word of the mystery that the Word as God sprung from the very substance of God the Father? Being in his likeness and equal with him, he became flesh. He became man, perfectly and yet without departing from the incomparable excellence of the divine dignities. He continued in that state in which he had always been. He still was God, although he became flesh and in form like us. He is David's Lord therefore according to that which belongs to his divine glory, nature and sovereignty. He is his son according to the flesh." (excerpt from COMMENTARY ON LUKE, HOMILY 137.52) (Schwager, n.d.)

The Word Among Us Meditation on Romans 5:5-11 comments on the fiery uncontainable love that Jesus shows throughout the Gospels.

Every day Jesus seeks you out. He wants to heal your sorrow over losing a loved one, your anxiety over finances, your desire to reconcile with an estranged friend, or the pain you experience because of sin. As you offer him your wounds and worries, the love that flows from his Sacred Heart will fill your heart. That heart, “so inflamed with love” for you, will bestow on you his infinite treasures: his peace, healing, mercy, and comfort.

Jesus is waiting for you with open arms! Come and let him embrace you.

“O Jesus, let me know the fire of your love today!” (Meditation on Romans 5:5-11, n.d.)

Friar Jude Winkler comments on the Ezekiel 34 passage that declares the shepherds to guide the people had failed and God himself would now lead them. This prophecy is fulfilled in the person of Jesus. Romans declares that God has poured the Spirit into our hearts. As sinners we did not deserve mercy and compassion but Love has reconciled us. The Shepherd who finds the one may have us ask “what about the 99?” God reaches out to those who need His Love. He does like the parent who rejoices at the transformation of a wayward child.

Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, introduces authors Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom reflect on the Alcoholics Anonymous community and the powerful lessons we can learn from them. The organization models how to be responsible for self and others.  

At Alcoholics Anonymous, no one’s in charge. And yet, at the same time, everyone’s in charge…. The organization functions just like a starfish. You automatically become part of the leadership—an arm of the starfish, if you will—the moment you join. Thus, AA is constantly changing form as new members come in and others leave. The one thing that does remain constant is the recovery principle—the famous twelve steps. Because there is no one in charge, everyone is responsible for keeping themselves—and everyone else—on track.… There’s no application form, and nobody owns AA.   

Nobody owns AA. Bill realized this when the group became a huge success and people from all over the world wanted to start their own chapters. Bill had a crucial decision to make. He could go with the spider option and control what the chapters could and couldn’t do. Under this scenario, he’d have had to manage the brand and train applicants in the AA methodology. Or he could go with the starfish approach and get out of the way. Bill chose the latter. He let go. (Rohr, n.d.)

We ponder the experiences of burning love when the hymn of Leonard Cohen “there is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in” resonates with our journey.

References

Caime, J. (2025, June 27). Daily Reflection June 27, 2025 | Creighton Online Ministries. Creighton Online Ministries. Retrieved June 27, 2025, from https://onlineministries.creighton.edu/daily-reflections/daily-reflection-june-27-2025 

Ezekiel, CHAPTER 34 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved June 27, 2025, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/ezekiel/34?11 

Luke, CHAPTER 15 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved June 27, 2025, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/luke/15?3 

Meditation on Romans 5:5-11. (n.d.). The Word Among Us: Homepage. Retrieved June 27, 2025, from https://wau.org/meditations/2025/06/27/1317323/ 

Psalms, PSALM 23 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved June 27, 2025, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/psalms/23?1 

Rohr, R. (n.d.). Individual and Collective Responsibility. Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved June 27, 2025, from https://cac.org/daily-meditations/individual-and-collective-responsibility/ 

Romans, CHAPTER 5. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved June 27, 2025, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/romans/5?5 

Schwager, D. (n.d.). Rejoice, I Have Found My Sheep Which Was Lost. Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved June 27, 2025, from https://www.dailyscripture.net/daily-meditation/?ds_year=2025&date=jun27a

Raised to Life

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today invite us to follow the prompting of the Spirit to accept audacious action that brings life to those who we encounter on our journey.

Resurrection and Life

The reading from the Prophet Ezekiel follows the vision of the Dry Bones.

* [37:1–14] This account is a figurative description of God’s creation of a new Israel. Even though that creation begins with the remains of the old Israel, the exiles under the image of dry bones, depicting a totally hopeless situation, the new Israel is radically different: it is an ideal people, shaped by God’s spirit to live the covenant faithfully, something the old Israel, exiles included, were unable to do. While this passage in its present context is not about the doctrine of individual or communal resurrection, many Jewish and Christian commentators suggest that the doctrine is foreshadowed here. (Ezekiel, CHAPTER 37, n.d.)

Psalm 130 is a prayer waiting for Divine Redemption.

* [Psalm 130] This lament, a Penitential Psalm, is the De profundis used in liturgical prayers for the faithful departed. In deep sorrow the psalmist cries to God (Ps 130:1–2), asking for mercy (Ps 130:3–4). The psalmist’s trust (Ps 130:5–6) becomes a model for the people (Ps 130:7–8). (Psalms, PSALM 130, n.d.)

In the reading from Romans, Paul contrasts the Flesh and the Spirit.

* [8:1–13] After his warning in Rom 7 against the wrong route to fulfillment of the objective of holiness expressed in Rom 6:22, Paul points his addressees to the correct way. Through the redemptive work of Christ, Christians have been liberated from the terrible forces of sin and death. Holiness was impossible so long as the flesh (or our “old self”), that is, self-interested hostility toward God (Rom 8:7), frustrated the divine objectives expressed in the law. What is worse, sin used the law to break forth into all manner of lawlessness (Rom 8:8). All this is now changed. At the cross God broke the power of sin and pronounced sentence on it (Rom 8:3). Christians still retain the flesh, but it is alien to their new being, which is life in the spirit, namely the new self, governed by the holy Spirit. Under the direction of the holy Spirit Christians are able to fulfill the divine will that formerly found expression in the law (Rom 8:4). The same Spirit who enlivens Christians for holiness will also resurrect their bodies at the last day (Rom 8:11). Christian life is therefore the experience of a constant challenge to put to death the evil deeds of the body through life of the spirit (Rom 8:13). (Romans, CHAPTER 8, n.d.)

The Gospel of John relates the death of Lazarus to Jesus as the Resurrection and the Life who raises Lazarus to Life.

* [11:1–44] The raising of Lazarus, the longest continuous narrative in John outside of the passion account, is the climax of the signs. It leads directly to the decision of the Sanhedrin to kill Jesus. The theme of life predominates. Lazarus is a token of the real life that Jesus dead and raised will give to all who believe in him. Johannine irony is found in the fact that Jesus’ gift of life leads to his own death. The story is not found in the synoptics, but cf. Mk 5:21 and parallels; Lk 7:11–17. There are also parallels between this story and Luke’s parable of the rich man and poor Lazarus (Lk 16:19–31). In both a man named Lazarus dies; in Luke, there is a request that he return to convince his contemporaries of the need for faith and repentance, while in John, Lazarus does return and some believe but others do not. (John, CHAPTER 11, n.d.)

Mirielle Mason comments that we have a lot to gain from suffering. Strength, perseverance, faith, and perspective are a few that come to mind.

What was at the root of all of this? Suffering. Lazarus suffered an illness and death. The sisters suffered grief at the loss of their brother. They had frustration, sadness, hopelessness and so many other emotions. But what did this anguish allow for? A community came together to love and support them! Jesus performed a miracle that instilled faith in many bystanders.

What is my point here? Suffering is what brings us together - it unites us. We all have it. The pain of others is what gives us the opportunity to be Christ to others. A life free of suffering is not possible, but we do have the unique ability to lessen the difficulties of others. And remember, the greatest suffering of all was Jesus died on the cross to save us… (Mason, 2023)

Don Schwager quotes “Cross and Resurrection,” by Augustine of Hippo, 354-430 A.D.

"Jesus' cross is an example of painful toil. His resurrection is the reward of painful toil. In the cross He showed us how we are to bear suffering. In His resurrection He showed us what we are to hope for." (excerpt from On the Creed 3,9) (Schwager, n.d.)

The Word Among Us Meditation on John 11:1-45 comments that the reality of death was painful for Jesus even though he was planning to raise Lazarus. We might believe that a loved one is with God, and perhaps feel guilty about grieving because of the joy that they are now experiencing in heaven. But Jesus’ example shows us that it’s human to be sad, and that our faith isn’t somehow deficient if we grieve.

If you are experiencing grief, know that Jesus is with you in your sorrow, not as a dispassionate bystander, but as a fellow mourner. He understands your pain, and in your darkest hour, he is with you to comfort and console you.

“Jesus, thank you for never abandoning me, in good times and in bad.” (Meditation on John 11:1-45, n.d.)

Rob Marsh SJ, a tutor in spirituality at Campion Hall, University of Oxford, begins to imagine the events in the gospel reading for the fifth Sunday of Lent from the point of view of Lazarus, raised from the dead.

He knew that raising the dead was the last straw. My God! Even coming here, near Passover, when he did, was a risk, let alone such a dramatic gesture! He knew what he was doing when he gave me back my life. He was buying his own death. I understood that look in his eyes when they took him, bound, and the smile on his lips.

Oh, they’ll kill him, there’s no doubt of that. They’ll have to have their way. ‘Better that one man should die than the rest suffer’ – that’s what our people’ll say, making it a Passover bargain, a lamb for a life.

What more can you do for someone you love than trade your life for theirs? But what a gift to have to receive! Where does it leave me, to have been loved that much and to know the cost and, while he dies, to go on living? (Marsh, 2020)

Friar Jude Winkler shares the practice of Zoroaster in the treatment of dead bodies that resonates with the passage from Ezekiel. The Life of the Spirit proclaimed by Paul is so profound that it helps us to participate in rising from the dead. Friar Jude identifies the realized eschatology in communion with Christ even as we need normal mourning at the loss of those close to us.

Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, has long admired what he considers the “spiritual genius” of Bill Wilson (1895–1971), one of the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous. In his book on the spirituality of the Twelve Steps, Richard describes why the first step is essential—for alcoholics and non-alcoholics alike.

It is the imperial ego that has to go, and only powerlessness can do the job correctly. Otherwise, we try to engineer our own transformation by our own rules and with our own power—which is therefore, by definition, not transformation! It seems we can in no way engineer or steer our own conversion. If we try to change our ego with the help of our ego, we only have a better-disguised ego! To borrow a quote often associated with Albert Einstein, “No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.” [1] (Rohr, 2023)

We seek the strength to respond to the call to accept being unbound in the service of those we can help unbind. 

References

Ezekiel, CHAPTER 37. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved March 26, 2023, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/ezekiel/37?12 

John, CHAPTER 11. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved March 26, 2023, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/john/11?1 

Marsh, R. (2020, March 26). Lazarus alive. Thinking Faith. Retrieved March 26, 2023, from https://www.thinkingfaith.org/articles/lazarus-alive 

Mason, M. (2023, March 26). Creighton U. Daily Reflection. Online Ministries. Retrieved March 26, 2023, from https://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/032623.html 

Meditation on John 11:1-45. (n.d.). The Word Among Us: Homepage. Retrieved March 26, 2023, from https://wau.org/meditations/2023/03/26/638603/ 

Psalms, PSALM 130. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved March 26, 2023, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/psalms/130?1 

Rohr, R. (2023, March 26). Admitting Our Powerlessness — Center for Action and Contemplation. Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved March 26, 2023, from https://cac.org/daily-meditations/admitting-our-powerlessness-2023-03-26/ 

Romans, CHAPTER 8. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved March 26, 2023, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/romans/8?8 

Schwager, D. (n.d.). I Am the Resurrection and the Life. Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations – Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved March 26, 2023, from https://www.dailyscripture.net/daily-meditation/?ds_year=2023&date=mar26